How To Rid Yourself Of Genital Warts

Dr. Stuart Flanagan, an NHS Doctor, discusses the topic of genital warts, a sexually transmitted infection, including the root cause, means of infection and tips on how to manage them effectively.

For today, we are going to talk about how to manage genital warts. Genital warts are one of the commonest sexually transmitted infections and they are caused by Human Papilloma Virus, which is an extremely common virus that lots of us come into contact with. There are up to a hundred strains of HPV or Human Papilloma Virus but two, in particular, cause genital warts; they are strains six and eleven and what happens is they cause fleshy little bumps on the skin.

They are usually painless but can be itchy and uncomfortable and sometimes can bleed. The virus is transmitted by skin to skin contact during sex, and it is important to remember that you cannot pick up the virus by sharing towels or toilet seats and it is not likely to be transmitted by anything other than close sexual contact - skin to skin. That is why condoms are really good to use and they reduce the risk by about fifty percent, but obviously for the parts of the body that touch that are covered by a condom.

So, how can we manage genital warts? Well, lots of creams are sold over the counter, which treat warts in general but none of these are specifically for genital warts. So, I would recommend attending your genital-urinary clinic for a full sexual health screen, they can give specialist care and advice; and also check for any other sexually transmitted infections you may have been exposed to. The specialist treatment they can offer is cryotherapy, which is a freezing spray which can treat the warts and also a cream which can be used at home.

There are two main treatments for genital warts; the first is cryotherapy which is a freezing spray, and what this does is freeze up the skin and gently erode the warty tissue; it usually takes four to six treatments before you start to see results, but over time, over the course of maybe three to four weeks, you should expect the warts to erode away and go completely. Another form of treatment which can be used instead of the freezing spray or in combination with it is a cream which includes the ingredient podophyllotoxin. This is highly effective for warty tissue in the genital area and applying that at home over the course of a couple weeks should erode the warty tissue and clear the genital warts.

It is important to remember that warts can come back and recur in the future, so it is important to keep an eye on the area because they might come back again a few months after the treatment has been completed. Usually, the wart virus can stay active in the skin for up to two years, but after this point, it is usually completely inactive and it is much less likely that warts will come back out again. So, those are some tips on how to manage genital warts.

Dr. Stuart Flanagan, an NHS Doctor, discusses the topic of genital warts, a sexually transmitted infection, including the root cause, means of infection and tips on how to manage them effectively.